Korean flashpoint: Trump versus Kim

If it weren’t for the dangerous consequences of their rhetoric, the schoolyard-type bullying of Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un would be quite amusing. And when it is considered that the President of the world’s most powerful nation, the United States, is indulging in it, it is simply beyond comprehension. North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, had recently reminded Trump that he (Kim) had a nuclear button on his desk if Trump was foolish enough to threaten an attack on his country.

Trump will not be left behind in this war of words, if it remains just that. He tweeted, ‘North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un just stated that the ‘Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.’ Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger and more powerful one than his and my Button works.”

This counter threat of nuclear annihilation comes on top of Trump’s earlier threat to rain down ‘fire and fury’ on North Korea like the world has never seen, surpassing presumably the destruction visited on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the then US President Truman unleashed the newly developed atom bomb on the two Japanese cities.

There is history and legal background, dubious or otherwise, to Trump’s threats. President Truman unleashed the atom bomb on Japan without Congress or the American people knowing that their country even had the bomb.

The atom bomb was born, as a secret project of President Franklin Roosevelt and even Truman, his then Vice-President, was unaware about this. He was let in on the secret only after he became president following Roosevelt’s death.

The prospects of a substantive diplomatic breakthrough on real issues through inter-Korean dialogue are distant, if they exist at all

Truman wasted no time in unleashing the bomb on Japan. The presidential authority for the use of atomic weapons was extended undiminished in the Atomic Energy Act of 1946. Since then, every American president carries with him, wherever he goes, the “football” containing the codes for launching a nuclear attack.

The US Vice President, Dick Cheney, similarly described the then US President George W. Bush’s war power, when he reportedly said: “He [Bush] could launch the kind of devastating attack the world has never seen. He doesn’t have to check with anybody, he doesn’t have to call the Congress, he doesn’t have to check with the courts.”

Indeed, this was what happened with Truman when he ordered the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Therefore, let us not kid ourselves that President Trump is simply playing a word game with the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, and everything will be right with the world. Trump is maniacal and obsessed with his power.

On the other hand, Kim Jong-un is equally obsessed with his growing nuclear arsenal, which is still small compared to the US. But not withstanding their numbers, nuclear weapons can wreak tremendous havoc. It was, therefore, some consolation when Kim indicated a diplomatic opening with South Korea in a New Year Day speech, with Seoul was eager to take him up on that.

In this way Pyongyang might hope to create a rift between Seoul and Washington, where President Moon Jae-in is not comfortable with Trump’s high stakes game with his country as the theatre of a potential war that might cause serious casualties amounting to incalculable numbers. Even a non-nuclear confrontation is likely to cause serious harm to Seoul, which is within North Korea’s artillery range.

No wonder, President Moon of South Korea is eager to a diplomatic opening. However, Trump reportedly scorned its prospects, although later he called the proposed inter-Korean talks “a good thing.” In any case, he has said that the talks between the two Koreas resulted from sanctions imposed by the US and the international community. He added, “Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not — we will see.” In other words, the US is not keen that its South Korean ally will explore the peaceful channel while weakening Trump’s hardline policy of demanding North Korea’s abandoning of nuclear weapons as a pre-condition for any breakthrough.

In any case, the prospects of a substantive diplomatic breakthrough on real issues through inter-Korean dialogue are distant, if at all. First, Pyongyang would like Seoul to distance itself from the US in some pronounced way. Such as not participating in annual joint US-South Korea military exercises, which North Korea regards as designed to attack their country.

However, Seoul will find it difficult to show its independence to Washington in any way that might jeopardize its security. This is because its security is dependent on the US alliance against an aggressive North Korea and its growing arsenal of nuclear weapons. It might be noted, however, that the scheduled joint US-South Korea military exercises early next year have been postponed because of the winter Olympics.

In this climate of fear, any prospects of peaceful reunification of the two Koreas, remains a distant prospect. There have been some diplomatic overtures in the past between the two Koreas, but they haven’t gone very far. Any possible diplomatic opening between them is welcome, but realistically its prospects of breaking the Korean deadlock remain illusive.

The writer is a senior journalist and academic based in Sydney. He can be reached at sushilpseth@yahoo.co.au